Opinion: Here’s how we can fix the Port Authority

Thomas D. Carver was assistant general manager of Newark Liberty International Airport. He later served as New Jersey commissioner of labor and workforce development and executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

CALLS TO reform the Port Authority abound in political circles and on editorial pages. However, unless the primary cause of the agency’s diversion from its basic bi-state mission is understood, reform will not be accomplished and the organization could once again be used as a political ATM machine by either or both states.

The erosion of the Port Authority’s mission is directly traceable to the agreement between the states to share its operational governance. Under the pact, the chairman is appointed by New Jersey while the executive director is a New York appointee.

Once begun, the cancer of politicization intensified when Gov. Christie Whitman determined that the deputy executive director should be a New Jersey appointee.

On a parallel disaster course, the states also began to skim millions of authority revenues for favored state or gubernatorial projects that they would not or could not fund through state budgets.

Can the damage to the Port Authority be repaired and the agency restored to its primary mission?

Yes. The question is whether our political leaders have the will power to do so.

First the shared governance agreement referred to above must be jettisoned. Second, the chairmanship of the agency’s board should be rotated between the states on a three-year cycle.

Third, and most important, Port Authority Board membership, once a great honor, should be bestowed on people of proven accomplishment and vision who will represent the citizens of the states fairly and without regard to the real or perceived political needs of their appointers. The appointment of John Degnan as chairman was an excellent first step, but only that.

Padding the payroll

Fourth, padding the payroll with political referrals who in many cases are not only unqualified but placed in positions created to accommodate their hiring must cease. Infusing political referrals at various levels but particularly in the executive cadre has virtually aborted this process. Further, it has sapped the morale of the organization whereby qualified, able people are forced to report to so-called superiors of no discernable talent and whose only job may be to serve as the eyes and ears of a governor.

Future executive directors should not be gubernatorial appointees but should be selected by the board on recommendation of a board vetting sub-committee with equal state representation. The selection process would be based on a candidate’s track record of accomplishment, managerial qualifications to oversee such a massive, diversified organization and the ability to mold staff into a unified, determined and highly motivated group.

Whether a candidate is from Teaneck or Tuckahoe should not be among the criteria. Neither should an applicant’s political affiliation.

Further, the executive director must be recognized as the agency’s CEO and vested with full authority to oversee and direct staff and operations within the total port district. The executive director should select his or her deputy executive director. Department heads would be chosen by the executive director. Both processes would be subject to board approval.

Skimming of agency revenues must also cease. The Port Authority was not created to fund parks in Union City or studies of private corporate development in Hoboken for an organization represented by the authority chairman’s law firm.

Authority’s mission

The Port Authority’s mission is to build, maintain and operate facilities necessary to guarantee the commercial and fiscal integrity of the bi-state port district. All Port Authority facilities are actually bi-state in nature because the economies of New York and New Jersey are interdependent.

Like it or not, we need each other. A full quarter of the area’s population can trace their ability to earn a living because of the agency’s work.

Implementing these proposals would eliminate the present situation of competing Port Authorities.

Reforming the Port Authority will depend on the wisdom, courage and vision of our elected officials. This much is certain: Governors who lower the bar in these areas do it at their risk and, more importantly, at ours.